Hi Everyone,
Just thought I’d chime in here to clear up any info regarding the Xbox Series internal SSD and the expansion SSD.
Firstly lets talk about the size of games:
Game sizes on the Series X|S should be SMALLER than we expect, this is due to optimised compression thanks to the Velocity Architecure. Over time, expect game sizes to increase though as developers take advantage of the new hardware. So, more games should fit on the SSD than you think.
Also note, that you can still use a standard USB3.0 Hard Drive to store and play your existing Xbox One / Xbox games. These do not need to be installed on the Internal SSD. You can even store your Xbox Series X|S games on the USB3.0 external drive when you aren’t playing them, and then simply transfer them back on to the SSD when you want to play. This saves you having to download games all over again.
The new SSD is expensive, yes, however you need to remember that it is a PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD, these are very expensive as they are brand new and super fast. The high price point was expected - however do expect prices to fall as the standard becomes more adopted in the future.
You don’t “need” to buy the expansion SSD, right now its more of a luxury/convenience.
Also just want to add that I saw someone alluded to buying discs instead of digital which may save some storage space on the SSD’s - if this IS what you meant, then thats not how it works, and its not how it has works since the Xbox One / PS4 launches. Discs are now only used for 2 reasons.
1: To install the game on to the console.
2: As your licence for that game.
You don’t save any SSD/HDD space by installing from a disc.
However, yes, you can sell physical copies of games as always. I do prefer digital though and only buy digital games - mainly for the convenience And sharing them with my nephew via Game Share.
I hope this info helps
Edit: Also want to add that I’m happy Microsoft included an expansion slot, this enables us to increase the amount of space we have for games without having to totally remove the existing SSD - which is how it will be on the PS5 (On the PS5 you have to open the console, remove the M.2 SSD and replace it entirely).